What is the emerging church?
February 26th, 2006 | You may have noticed that I am intrigued by what is known as the ‘emerging church’. There is button on the right side of the page that says “Friend of Emergent,” and emerging church even has its own category for posts. But what the heck is it?
Scot McKnight wrote an article for The Covenant Companion titled “The Future or Fad: A Look at the Emerging Church Movement” (download .pdf) that is the most concise and articulate description of the emerging church I’ve read to date. If you are a Christian that has no idea what the emerging church is, I suggest you take a few minutes to read this short article; you might be surprised how much you resonate with it (and if you don’t, that’s okay, too). Here’s a quote from the article to whet your appetite:
The EM [Emerging Movement] prefers global theological affirmations and the classical creeds rather than denominationally shaped theological creeds, and the reason for this is clear: the EM is a missional shaped ecclesiology that seeks to unite Christians for the sake of unleasing the gospel to change the world, rather than a theological movement designed to demand conformity on specific theological issues.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
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Yes, Yes, and Yes. I really like all the definitions, or attempt at defining the undefinable and also the criticisms. It could be me not being completely postmodern yet but I like that he says that at some poing the EM will need to say what it thinks and maybe find some theology to claim as its own. So many words but never a good way of explaining.
Hey Jake…
Thanks for the link to Scott’s article… Thought it was fascinating. My fav quote was part of his summary:
Maybe we need to break away from denominations and institutions and just Christ’s church wherever we are at.
I have certainly benefitted from an approach to evangelism by just “being”…
Take care,
Tom aka Headphonaught
The emerging movement (is it a movement yet?) is making some very good questions. I wish more people started to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church in our days.
Being instead of saying. If we only achieved that, it would be great.
it's simply bottom up thinking instead of top down thinking –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
the church doesn't own emergence –
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/...
both are valid and both have their strengths and weaknesses.
it's simply bottom up thinking instead of top down thinking –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
the church doesn't own emergence –
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/...
both are valid and both have their strengths and weaknesses.
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